


Not-Chaperoning on a Not-Date

by ABecker



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-25 11:49:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6193966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ABecker/pseuds/ABecker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robbie's in town for a new job, and Kamala's definitely planning to take advantage of it. Problem is, she's not allowed to date-without a chaperon. And poor Aamir's the only candidate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Call

Robbie turned on the webcam on his laptop, finally allowed a quiet moment after putting Gabe to bed for the night. The stressful life of a single parent, he supposed. Especially one in a not-relationship with a girl he met under downright strange circumstances, and--lucky for him--lived all the way in New Jersey. 

He called Kamala over Skype, and thankfully it was only six o'clock on the east coast, so it wasn't too late or suspicious that he'd called. She'd explained to him earlier that her parents were pretty strict with just about everything, but  _especially_ with boys because her last relationship had ended not-so-well, with him kidnapping her and putting her brother under the effect of the Terrigen mist. 

A familiar voice and picture greeted him before the video caught up with her. Kamala was tired, hair messy, but not as messy as her room, with her costume sitting on her bed haphazardly. "Hey, Robbie," she said with a tired smile, scratching her head a little bit with a yawn. "How's my favorite hothead?"

"Hopefully a little more awake than Elastigirl," he retorted with a smile. "Gabe saw the headlines on FreakingAwesome. You got into the big leagues. Nice." He held his hand up to the webcam in a sort of high-five gesture, which Kamala returned. " _And_ you're already writing fanfic about it. Do you have any idea how many upvotes your Cap and Thor fic hit?" It was rhetorical. Of  _course_ she'd know. It hit the most-viewed in the 'superhero fandom' of the month within a day, probably because the kiss had been caught on traffic cameras and multiple bystanders. 

"Well, being the new it-girl of superherodom comes with a great burden of responsibility," she said dramatically, seemingly gaining energy from the praise. "Kamala Khan: High school student and fanfic writer by day, Avenger and Inhuman... also usually during the day." Kamala stood up, jumped on her bed, and struck a superhero pose. "I have no choice but to write about my adventures... slightly embellished upon so they're not too accurate," she amended. 

"Such a sacrifice you have to make," he remarked dryly. "Maybe you should sell team selfies or make shirts out of them. Cape merch sells like hotcakes."

"OH! That reminds me!" she rushed to her closet and pulled out what looked like a roll of wrapping paper before shoving it in front of the camera for Robbie to see. 

And... it was covered in little Ghost Rider skulls of himself. 

"Congrats on making the big leagues yourself," she replied smugly. "You're  _huge_ out here. People keep talking about this guy that was like you back about ten years ago and are saying you're even more badass."

"Really? I'm... big out there?" It came as a bit of a shock to Robbie. Sure some people knew  _some_ things about the new Ghost Rider. Footage of him was on Twitter and YouTube occasionally; a couple people drew him. But he never thought he'd be anything close to warranting any attention. "I might just want to move out east just for some attention," he mumbled.

"I  _wish_ ," Kamala said, resting her chin on her hand. "Do you know how weird it is to have a kinda-sorta boyfriend living all the way in LA? Where you can get like--shot, or whatever, and I wouldn't know about it?"

"Kinda the same deal with me," he reminded her. "This whole distance thing and you having so much extra work with the Avengers and your brother's engagement... I'm surprised you even talk with me."

"Well, as a hero, some things take priority. And those things right now are the only guy who's cool about being interested in me that hopefully isn't a supervillain, and being a freaking  _Avenger_. But I do wish we could hang out, you know, in person."

Robbie smiled wide and grabbed the webcam as if he were grabbing her face. "That's one thing you don't have to worry about. I've been contacted by this guy who professionally restores cars--saw what I did for a b-lister whose el Camino I restored. I have an interview in Brooklyn next week."

"No way! Robbie, that's great! When are you coming out?"

"In three days. Gotta get my stuff together. Maybe we can get a smoothie or something when we get there?" 

"Of course!" She looked at the timezone clock before leveling Robbie with a flat glare. "You start work at 5 tomorrow," she reminded. "And it's ten-thirty over there. Bed, Robbie."

He gave a reluctant sigh, before smiling at her. "Fine,  _Mom_. Same time tomorrow?" he asked hopefully.

"Of course. Now, bed."

Robbie nodded. "Night," he said before hanging up and logging out of Skype. He still had a couple hours for hero work.

* * *

Kamala let out a little squee of delight as the conversation ended, putting away the costume. Robbie was coming out? 

Soon enough, Aamir was at her door. "Something wrong?"

"Uh, nothing!" she said a little too quickly. Then, as Aamir was just about to leave, she stopped him. "Wait! ...Uh... Saturday, I want you to meet a friend of mine who's coming into town. Can you?"

Aamir looked suspicious, but sighed in defeat. "Fine. Just come down. Ammi wants you to set the table."

 


	2. Moving Day

The next few days were full of excitement in the Reyes household. Gabe was thrilled to be going on a cross-country road trip with his big brother, and Robbie himself was thanking whatever was up there that he had managed to get out of Hillrock Heights before his nineteenth birthday, and that he and Gabe were intact. Well, mostly. While they’d be out apartment-hunting for a ground-level apartment within Robbie’s price range, Johnny had thankfully given them the go-ahead to take all the time they need to stay at his own place, which would be a massive help.

Robbie already had interviews set up with three or four developmental centers that said they’d be more than thrilled to take care of Gabe within driving distance of the job, and all of it, a blessed half-hour drive to Kamala’s place, and he wasn’t too proud to admit that there was something about the idea of living close to Kamala that made him feel a little bit better.

But at the same time, he was incredibly nervous. She said her family were pretty strict in their faith and it took a little convincing for Aamir’s future wife to get their seal of approval. Gabe said he’d be fine, but Robbie was raised Catholic, held no religion at the present, and had no parents for them to talk to. He’d been pushed around from one couple to another from the time he was six until he was sixteen, and what parent would want their daughter dating somebody like that? 

Looking for a little reassurance, he pulled out his phone. In retrospect, he didn’t exactly text the best person to ask about this kind of situation.

[text: Johnny] What if Kamala’s parents don’t like me?

Robbie had to wait a good twenty minutes before he got a reply. Though Johnny may have been Robbie’s childhood hero, he wasn’t exactly one to move with the times. Both his Facebook and Twitter pages were either filled with the _worst memes_ or way too professional, a telltale sign that Johnny had gotten a hold of the account, started running it like a normal middle-aged man would, and then his manager shortly after found out, changed the passwords, and told Johnny not to worry about it. The last time he was able to was in January, when he wrote a rather long and heartfelt tribute to David Bowie.

His phone buzzed.

[text] Then you don’t date her. Rockie and I didn’t date until after her dad passed away.

Okay, definitely not advice he wanted to go with. Maybe someone else?

He’d met Wiccan containing a small demonic outbreak in North Hollywood with Kate. Shortly after, they went out of costume and he met Billy. Billy was engaged and in the same relationship for a while, and was only a year older than Robbie. He had to know what to do, right?

[text] Hey, Billy. Can I ask some dating advice?

* * *

Billy and his fiance Teddy met with Robbie at a smoothie shop in Long Island a few days later, with the apartment freshly moved into. Apparently having superpowered friends were a good thing to have because the whole ordeal only took about two hours, with Billy's brother running things from the truck inside, his friend America (Gabe almost passed out over meeting  _the_ America Chavez, and had her sign a trading card) and Teddy moving the heavy things like beds and televisions. Okay, so he'd gotten off on the wrong foot with Kate, but the rest of the Young Avengers were pretty great. 

"You guys are really the best for helping out," Robbie said, paying the receipt for the trio's smoothies and picking a table towards the back. It was already quiet, but he didn't want any superhero bullshit to deal with on his first day in New York. "It kinda sucks America didn't come. Does she just want extra alone time with her girlfriend or something?"

Even though each of them had their own smoothie, damn if they weren't sharing Teddy's banana one right now, looking like the world's sappiest couple. Billy shrugged. "She likes keeping hero life and human life separate. And she's always been a little distant." 

"Do you ever regret not doing that? Like, being active heroes on the same team and then going home to each other?"

Billy shook his head. "We've had more problems when we didn't hero together than when we did. There was this period of time when we both  _thought_ we hung up our capes, but Teddy was doing things solo shifted like Spidey." Teddy pulled away from the smoothie, abashed. "If something happened to him and I wasn't there to help him... I don't know what I would've done." But then Teddy looked back at him and gave a knowing look. There was some obvious history of losing a loved one and some dramatic change happening. Is this about Kamala?"

"I mean, kind of. I don't want to work with her because... Eli hurts a lot of people. I don't want her to be one of them."

Billy let go of the smoothie straw he was fiddling with between his fingers. "You don't have to worry about Kamala. She's in some of the best hands in the world. Vision, Thor... Iron Man. She'll be fine."

"Iron man can take his shiny suit and shove it up his ass," he mumbled, which caused Teddy, who was currently sipping the smoothie, to unceremoniously snort, choking on it and coughing it down. "How did your family react to you dating someone outside of your faith?" he changed the topic. It was a good bit of why he asked Billy and Teddy here. 

"They were fine with it, but we aren't actually really intense Orthodox. We skip the pork and shellfish, sure, but we're not really into it. They didn't really care." 

Teddy was wiping his nose with a napkin. "I was raised Episcopalian. It wasn't really a deal for me, either."

"Sorry we couldn't help more," Teddy said with an apologetic smile. "Hopefully it'll work out though. We need a super couple with the power to target every one of Drumpf's bigotries, and you two at least have three down," he joked. "Maybe people will start shipping you."

At the mention of 'shipping', Billy groaned. "If you get shipped, don't go into the tags, though."


End file.
